so as some know i have the wonderful luck of #1 having a crappy service department at my dealership, although they try their best, but it ussauly takes an excessive amount of time. and #2 probably have more problems with my car than any other base coupe. that said here is the problem and a lil back ground. shortly after the fall dragon my crossfire broke down, i was able to drive it home and use my obd2 scanner, it was the crank position sensor... i called the dealer, they said to bring it in. a couple months go by, and i take my car in lol. they replace the sensor, doesnt work, they tell me there are actually 2 different sensors so it might be the wrong one, they order another and install it, doesnt work, they say its the wiring and so they order another pigtail, doesnt work, they say its my ecu, order another one, 2 weeks go by as they reprogram my ecu, finally i am called to pick it up. they were worried about how dusty it had gotten and that there were hand prints on it so they washed it, with what looked like 80 grit sand paper... i was less than pleased but said oh well guess its time to pull out the buffer, i was walking up to the door when i noticed there trade mark... every time i take that car in they make sure they leave me a nice fresh ding somewhere usally on the driver side rear fender.
so... 1k miles and 2 months later after my car spent the whole month of january in the dealership, i pull into the car wash with the intention of using the pressure washer to just hose off the under carriage before i went home to due a thorough cleaning.... pulling up to the bay and they car dies... was running great 2 minutes ago, now its dead and wont start. i call up chrysler they send some yokle to tow my car that makes comment like "them be some skinny taaars" and i bet thoose wheels are pretty expensives, and wow thoose speakers back there dont look cheap, and informs me not to worry if the bumper scrapes the rollback, i wont be able to see it..... iu have him take me to my house, i get my truck and i follow him to the dealership and watch him unload the car and lock it and put the key in the drop box. so i get a call from one of the service writers he informs me its my fault and that i must have been driving at excessive rpms and high speeds for this to have happened, i say what happened, he informs me that my flywheels is in about 10 pieces in my bell housing.... i go ballistic, he hands the phone to the manager, this is the guy i usally deal with, and some idiot promoted him. so he tells me everything will be taken care and he is sorry for the way the other guy acted. the other guy calls me 3 days later and tells me they ordered, another crank position sensor, another wiring harness and a new flywheel. i ask was anything else damaged? he said there was a minor dent on the pressure plate... but it wouldnt hurt anything..... i say is the car on a lift? he replies yes, i say i'll be there in a minute. i hang up the phone im all the way down in southern maryland so i leave and get stuck in some of the worst traffic ive seen in some time, thinking i will never get there in time, my phone rings its the idiot again, telling me he just talked to the manager, and asked that since a few of the fingers on the pressure plate were bent if he could have it replaced... i said i thought you said there was just a little dent in it, he replies well yeah and some of the fingers are bent, i growl and say you better fix my gd car right this time. he reassures me he is doing his best, well his best is no where near good enough for me....
this brings us up to today when i made a suprise visit to the shop.... there is my car minus trans, also on a work bench near by is my pressure plate and clutch the old one had 5 fingers bent out of wack, so i inspect my clutch... what do i find? suprise suprise a chunk of the surface is gone on the flywheel side... im not happy, i growl, then i ask were you planning on putrting this piece of shlt back in my car, they reply well as you can see there is plenty of surface left on there, i flip it over and point out the missing chunk and growl. he goes my i never noticed that i'll order you a new one right now and he runs away.... this doesnt cost them a thing why dont they just fix it right instead of trying to short cut everything??????? anyone else had this many problems???

 

They sound like trailer trash idiots. Get another dealer fast.
This car aint no Camaro.

 

what do you expect its Chrysler your dealing with... most of their dealers are no different.. they sell junk cars and treat them like junk.. to them the crossfire is no different than their town and country or a pacifica.. There is a reason why dealerships are reffered to as stealerships.. and this is exactly why..

However I was able to find a good dealer in my area.. get your car to Jersey if you want some work done, I know a place

 

Did you buy it new? On a scale of 1-10 (10=F1 driving).....how hard/often do you drive the hell out of it? I've never had a clutch go bad in my 40 years of driving sticks.....& I drive pretty aggressively most of the time....?

 

every time it gets turned on i drive the hell out of it, but the clutch didnt burn up there was a chunk out of it due to the flywheel breaking into piece... ive never seen a flywhell fall apart!

 

Hummm....what's the fastest speed you've ever had it up to? Ever hit the rev-limiter or governor?

 

120 something, no i never hit the govenor... what are you eluding to?

 

Just trying to figure out if it's going to happen to more of us with 6- speeds. Or, if it was just a defect in your flywheel??? I drove a Beretta GTZ for 130,000 miles ....whenever I would hit the rev-limiter the whole engine would shut off until the RPMs dropped below the red-line.....a strange feeling....

So, what you're telling us is.....you don't feel as if you abused the car....that it must have been a defect in the flywheel.....right?

 

the car only has 13000 miles on it, the oil has been changed like 4 times, all maintenance is "up to date" its not abused, do you know what a flywheel is? there is no way to abuse it, especially in 13k , short of trying to start it while the car is running. it is nothing more than a large steel gear, that is solid in the middle, how would i cause that to come apart? oh and they just called the car is ready for me to pick up, took 2 weeks this time.

 

I can't recall ever hearing of a flywheel coming apart except under the harshest of racing conditions. I've hear of chipping teeth off the flywheel by trying to start the car while the engine was running. Do you ride the clutch at all. I would imagine it would get really hot that way, and that's when things have a tendency to come apart. Is there a possibility they broke the flywheel at the dealership why they were removing it?

Bob M

 

Yeah, I have this vague memory about a story where during a drag race....a flywheel gutting the driver....

 

i drove the car 2 miles, to the car wash... a flywheel is a solid piece of steel there is no way it could have heated up that much, beside i know how to drive a stick... thats all ive been driving since i was 15, and the reason the dealer was removing it was because it was broke... why else would they remove it? why is my driving ability suspect to you people? the freakin car has 13k miles on it. wtf? how can you ask me such questions? what would give you the idea that #1 riding a clutch would break a flywheel... and #2 that i was racing or riding the clutch? in order to have a piece of steel fragment, from supposed extreme tempratures, it would have to be rapidly cooled, and further more would have to be in the white heat range for steel, if my fly wheel were white hot, i would have more problems than just that, and what i got it white hot then threw it in a bucket of water then put it back on then tried to drive? how dare you insult me and my driving ability with such idiotic comments, it was a faulty part thats why it was replaced under warranty without a single question of why it happened.

 

OK, Irwin....I apologize. It was a defect in the metal....the Germans aren't perfect....

On a positive note....the other day my wife drove it to work for the first time....& someone asked her "What did you pay for it, about $60K or so?".

 

Even if Irwin were to redline before every shift everytime he drives, that should not damage the clutch but his engine. Just because he redlines it all the time does not mean he's putting any more strain on the clutch than someone who does not redline but rides and feathers the clutch all day long at way below redline.

 

got the car back.... now im getting a loud pop out of the rear that i can feel in the seat of the car when i drive over dips and such in the road, my check engine light just came on again, and my exhuast fell off while i was driving it. the exhaust seems to have been removed and that they didnt tighten the bolt on the clamp good enough, i retightened it and havent had it happen again (about 4 full rotations of the nut!). im going to hit it with the obd2 here in a lil bit, but that pop is scary as **** and i'm very worried about what that can be, no vibrations in the rear on the highway, no out of the ordinary whining or anything, only happens on dips or places where the chasis is flexed. i drove it 200 miles this weekend, round trip to my cabin and back, and im pissed that evertime i get the car back something else is messed up! i'll post what the trouble code is later.